Astronomers have discovered the closest known black hole to Earth, at a distance of 1,600 light-years, as it is estimated to be twice as large as the Sun (10) times and three times closer than the previous record holder.
The hole was discovered by observing the motion of its companion star, which revolves around the black hole at approximately the same distance that the Earth revolves around the sun.
“The black hole was initially discovered using the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft,” said Karim El-Badri, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Al-Badri and his team followed up with the Gemini International Observatory in Hawaii to confirm their findings, which were published in the Royal Astronomical Society’s monthly announcements.
